Category: Youth Development

  • The Girls On The Run team at the Lakeshore Family YMCA had a special visitor to one of their final practices before the big run: Miss Michigan Angela Venditti. She talked with the girls about goal-setting, self-esteem, and resisting peer pressure. And most exciting for the girls on the team, she let them try on…

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  • Youth who participate in the I CAN ACHEIVE program are giving back by helping a needy family this holiday season. On Thursday, Nov. 15th, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Shield’s Pizza on 25101 Telegraph Road in Southfield will donate a percentage of food purchases to the YMCA I CAN ACHIEVE program’s Adopt-a-Family fund.

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  • Several lucky Detroit Swims graduates got the thrill of a lifetime recently when they got a chance to swim and ask questions of Olympian Peter Vanderkaay. He’s been a big supporter of Detroit Swims and came to visit after a medal-winning performance in the Olympic games in London.

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  • Every Saturday, a group of kids and parents meets at the Farmington YMCA and spend two hours playing with robots. Or it looks like playing, but what they are actually doing is learning computer programming, math, and problem-solving, and having a great time doing it.

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  • What once was a dreary stretch of parking lot is now a colorful playground for children at the YMCA’s Detroit Innovation Academy thanks to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers from Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, the Kaboom! nonprofit and the generosity of Y donors.

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  • Meet new Girls On The Run council director Jackie Kippen. She’s got ties to the Y as a former day camp counselor and now is back after running youth development programs for Clemson University in South Carolina. She’s excited to heading up one of the Y’s most popular youth programs.

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  • You’ve probably seen the billboards around Metro Detroit promoting the YMCA’s SWIFT program, but you may not know what exactly the program is. It stands for “Sexual Wellness Information for Teens” and is an 8-week curriculum the Y puts on at schools throughout the Metro area.

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  • An exhibit at the Boll YMCA Lobby Gallery of photographs from Detroit youths participating in the Focus:Hope Excel project gives adults a valuable look at the world through the eyes of these young people, who are too often written off or marginalized. They work with professional photographers throughout the year, and master both photographic techniques…

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  • One of the guiding principles of the Y — something every staff member and volunteer takes seriously — is youth development. Helping young people to reach their full potential in life is one of the things that makes the Y more than just a place to take swim lessons or work out. So it’s fitting…

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  • Preteens and teens are serving as mentors to young children, participating in service projects and learning about themselves and others as part of the Farmington Family YMCA’s reinvented Teen Camp. It’s all aimed at giving them a sense of leadership and self-worth through focusing on others.

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